The creation of bee farms in sunflower fields by large agricultural enterprises makes it possible to increase yields and supplement the production chain with a new product, however, this project is hindered by the unwillingness of professional beekeepers to leave their business and switch to hired labor, the owner of private enterprise Medovy Bdzholiar and the founder of Znatny Med TM, Valeriy Kureiko, has said.

"Beekeepers have been discussing for a long time whether [vertically integrated holdings] will oust them. It is needed up to ten beekeepers to operate a farm with 1,000-3,000 hives. At the moment, beekeepers are at the level of amateur apiaries. All "industrial" beekeepers or those who call themselves that, ruin the industrial apiary entrusted to them in the first year. We have already observed this more than once," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

Kureiko said that the production of honey is "striving" to get into the production chains of large agricultural producers, this is a worldwide practice, since through pollination the yield of sunflower can be increased up to 30%. Vegetable and melon crops also show a significant increase in yield after placing apiaries next to them.

According to him, the current group of 30-45-year-old beekeepers who own their own business for 500-1000 bee colonies will not agree to go to work as hired beekeepers in agricultural holdings in the event of implementation of projects of large bee farms.

"Therefore, for example, Kernel, yes, it can [organize large bee farms]. But after that it needs to build a vocational school, provide the beekeeper with a vehicle, housing and other things, so that he is not interested in emigrating to Canada, because that he will acquire professional skills and emigrate there," Kureiko said.

The expert said that the trend of enlargement of apiaries exists all over the world. According to him, in Ukraine, an industrial apiary is considered an enterprise with 1,000 beehives, while, in particular, in Canada it is 10,000-15,000 beehives.

According to Kureiko, every year one or two large bee farms with a production capacity of up to 100,000 hives enter the Ukrainian market, investment in which reaches UAH 200-300 million. However, they face the fact that up to 90% of bee colonies die during the first winter due to insufficient professionalism of the specialists working there.